Capturing the Moment

Coral reefs are amazing things. They grow in warm, clear waters around the globe. They have the ability to live in nutrient poor tropics because of a mutualistic relationship with algae called zooxanthellae that lives inside the stony coral skeleton. The zooxanthellae uses the ample sunlight in the shallow water to photosynthesize creating food for it and its host coral. The algae also provides color to the otherwise white coral. All young coral need to find something sturdy to attach too in order to start growing into a reef. They could grow on top of another reef, rocks, or in this case a shipwreck!  We dove the US Transport ship Liberty here in Bali, Indonesia and I was shocked to witness the amount of color that is underwater. So many different types of coral, both hard and soft, have attached to the ship wreck and have grown quickly. The wreck has been completely submerged for about 50 years which is a relatively short time for coral to form such dense coverage. Indonesia's l...

  Apo Island   Apo Island is a small island off the coast of Dauin, Philippines. The scuba diving here is a stark contrast to the nearby shoreline of Dauin. Huge coral reefs cover every square inch of ground in some areas around the island. Massive schools of jacks hang just off the deeper parts of the reef bathed in current and rich in food. Small reef fish stay close to the protective corals they call home. They do have to share their beautiful neighborhood with turtles, sea snakes, and cuttlefish as well.   Soft corals fight hard corals for space in the shallows and down the submerged walls of Apo Island. It is usually done as a day trip from one of the many dive resorts over in Dauin. We planned a 3 dive day trip. When I saw how small the island was and how fast the current was I thought we would see everything on the first two dives but our guide saved the best for last.   The first two dives were drift dives along the sloping walls. This is where we...